The new Life Play 2 succeeds its predecessor, powered with a new 1.3 GHz Quad Core processor and upgraded 8GB Internal memory. Also included is 1GB RAM and the latest Android 4.4 Kit Kat which offers users the most up to date performance. 8MP Camera with features such as LED Flash, geo-tagging, and 1080p HD Video Recording.

What’s inside the boxThis phone reminds me of Google’s Nexus 4 in many ways. Here’s another very affordable and capable smartphone from BLU. Design and package is well made with recyclable materials. Inside the box, a charger, usb cable, earphone, manuals, plastic case, battery, and a screen protector are included. On the Amazon product Details page, it says 2 Lithium ion batteries required (included), but only one battery is required just like any other smart phone, and only one battery is in the box (extra battery could have been nice, however.) And of course, before the initial use, the battery needs to be fully charged.

First, my favorite feature from this phone was unlocked dual sim slot. It doesn’t just have two sim slot, but I could actually activate two sim cards simultaneously. Then I could assign data service to sim1 and voice service to sim 2 or vice versa. This is the feature I always wanted since cellphone carriers keep raising the fee. Now I can finally have voice and data separately from two different carriers. I tried Cricket sim and T-mobile sim together and all worked great without an issue. I noticed, however, when both sim cards are active, battery seemed to run quicker. The sim slot #1 is micro-sim and slot #2 standard sized. Both of my Cricket and T-mobile sims are nano sized, so I just used a couple of adapters. http://amzn.com/B009GB6DBO

Screen is the part that I look at all the time, so I think having a good (color, brightness, touch sensitivity) screen is critical when choosing a smartphone. And to my surprise, the screen on this phone looked no different from most of the recent smartphones. I checked again the resolution and it stated 540×960. Because my eyes are used to high resolution display devices these days, I was able to tell the resolution difference between this phone and my iPhone 6; however, I just couldn’t complain that this is lower resolution phone because it just looked perfectly good. Reading a news article, watching a HD video, and playing with the photos I took with this phone, all these screen intensified activities looked perfectly fine. If you’re worried this has lower resolution than other recently launched phones, please worry not. I’ve seen some worse screens on the phone, and this one has a very nice one, unlike other budget phones. Other than the lower number of pixels, the screen itself is very bright, clear, and sharp. The factory default color temperature runs slightly cooler than my iPhone, but I prefer to have cooler screen than a warmer one. Touch sensitivity was also very responsive and prompt; I didn’t feel or see anything lagging or delaying on the screen.

Processing speed is one thing I noticed that lacks from my expectation. I felt it was little slow, but it was nothing like buggy or laggy. Because I had a faster phone before, I felt this one was slightly slow. When web browsing in chrome, pages open little slow, but once loaded, it browses normally. Other apps such as Google maps, Camera, Skype, etc..work really well and fine including receiving the GPS signals. This phone might not offer fastest processing speed, but considering the cost of this device, this would beat any competitors’. Also, using google maps’ navigation worked really well and faster than others.

Internal onboard storage is 8GB, but I had no problem adding a 32GB microSD card with full of media files. Different video files,such as .mkv, avi, mp4, all worked fine, and I was surprised actually the phone didn’t even get hot when watching a movie. With my 32GB microSD card added, I have more than enough storage to shoot HD videos with this phone (approximately, 22 hours of shooting time).

Most frequently used hardwares parts, such as front/back camera, battery, led flash, speaker, headphone port, and all the buttons work well as they expected. I especially like the massive 8 megapixel camera in the back. Photos look wonderful and sharp, and video recording did a good job as well. Since this is a budget phone, there’s no image stabilization or slow motion video recording, but it does perfectly well on the fundamental features of smartphone. Speaker volume is loud enough if turned all the way up, led flash is bright enough to find key holes at night. Everything worked so well and smooth, I am really satisfied with this low cost, but very capable, phone.

Overall, this is a excellent smart phone with the android 4.4 kitkat at a greatly reasonable price ($145). The price might give you an impression of low specs budget phone, but don’t get fooled by that. This phone is very capable running all the apps I need and does the job well. The build quality is excellent, and again, the phone doesn’t feel cheap at all (it feels like Nexus 4 for me) and weighs (5 oz) slightly more than iPhone 5S (4 oz). 4.7” screen size is very nice…

My background is that I’ve been an iPhone user for the past 4 years or so, having owned the iPhone 4&5. I’ll save any comments of iOS vs. Android and focus strictly on the phone hardware and performance. I’m also taking into consideration that this phone is $150 unlocked and no contract vs. about $650 for a current generation iPhone or premium Android phone.

Based on the price and performance this is a true 80/20 phone – you get 80% of the performance, quality and functionality of a premium phone for 20% of the price. For this reason, if you don’t have the desire or the cash to buy a $650 phone I’d readily recommend this one. When it comes down to my star rating, I’ve knocked off one star just because of the ergonomics of the phone itself. Otherwise, it’s solid, has very good call quality, and got nearly just as good of a signal (voice, data, and wifi as my iPhone). Also, the processor seems really up to par. I didn’t notice any difference in casual games like Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, etc. Sometimes when multitasking the interface was a bit laggy, but cleaning out some running apps got it back to normal. I don’t want to overplay that one, though, as it rarely happened to me.

I don’t like not having a hard button on the front of the phone. While the screen is off, the only way to wake it up is to hit the power button on the side. This wouldn’t be too bad, but the case kind of gets in its way. The other complaint I had is that the headphones don’t activate immediately upon plugging them in. I had to adjust the volume using the buttons on my headphone cord before they kicked in. I had to use my own pair, since the included ones didn’t work right – it was like they only made contact partially and sounded really weird. Those are the main reasons for 4 vs. 5 stars.

The screen is very good. Touch accuracy and responsiveness is excellent. The only mis-hits were when my palm was touching another part of the screen, and weren’t too frequent. Color is pretty good, with a slight shift toward a blue hue. Also, I wear polarized sunglasses in the car, and when turning the phone to landscape mode, the polarization blocks the entire screen.

Camera and video is very good. It has a really cool burst mode. Focus is pretty quick and accurate.

The included external speaker are crappy – definitely not something you’d watch a movie on, despite the “DTS” lingo in the product description. Actual voice clarity when using as a phone is good, though. Also, other people didn’t really notice that I’d switched phones, so I think that’s a big positive.

I didn’t test the 2nd SIM slot as I have no current use for it, but I did notice that calls and text messages mark which SIM they’re using, as do the icons for data and voice connectivity. I should mention I’m on a regular AT&T plan. While this phone doesn’t get 4GLTE, I really didn’t notice any slow down in normal use. I think the real benefit of LTE is that less people currently use it than the other bands, so it doesn’t crowd up and slow down as much during working hours downtown. But like I said, I wouldn’t pin any big issue with this phone itself.

I used the phone as a mobile hotspot quite frequently to connect my iPhone to use apps and let my kids play games, and both phones worked flawlessly. I’d say the only thing to watch out for here is that when in hotspot mode, it doesn’t switch to your home wifi automatically, and since other devices think they’re connected to wifi, they don’t try to switch either. Moral of the story is remember to switch it off when you get into a wifi zone.

Using a microSD card is kind of a pain, as you have to take off the case and back of the phone to access it. This also exposes the battery and SIM slots. You can do this without turning off the phone, but you’ll take a risk of the battery popping out. Also, when I put in a microSD, I had to reboot the phone for it to recognize it anyway.

When rebooting, it plays the BLU theme song pretty loudly, regardless of your audio settings. The battery is a Li-ion vs LiPo, so it charges much more slowly. It has decent run time, though.

The value you get in this package is excellent – a no frills phone with a screen the same size as an iPhone6, the same footprint as an iPhone6, but slightly thicker. You get a basic snap on case and screen protector. These would cost an additional $30-40 for an iPhone or Galaxy in a store. It’s a bit thicker, and has a lower resolution screen, but for normal calls, most web browsing and games, it’s still excellent. I wouldn’t trade in my iPhone for this one, but I also realize I’m paying a 500% premium for it.

I think this is an excellent phone for a teen or budget conscious adult who knows they aren’t going to be a power user.

Ok. I have only had for 3 days and I will update as i use it. First impressions are good. It is lighting fast and the touch screen is responsive. I am using it on Consumer Cellular with no issues. Everything works. The screen is gorgeous and the camera is good enough for my needs. The photos are clear with little noise or grain. The colors come out true to life. The videos are also very good but no image stabilization if that is important for you. The battery has lasted 15 hours and is still charged with moderate use no gaming. The GPS locks quickly and is as accurate as my motorola dx2 which has a great GPS chip in it. It is within 20 feet which isn’t bad.

I love the scheduled phone off/on and airplane on/off and the included RAM booster. Nice touches on a sub 200 phone. The speaker is loud if that is important to you but very tinny. I never use speakerphone so no big deal to me.

NOW FOR ISSUES: At first music sounded horrible. Not every headphone works with this phone. I had hoped BLU fixed this but they have not it appears. My Panasonics do not work well. No bass. But they have bass with my old Motorola. However, my hand me down earphones from my mother’s iPhone 5 do work and sound great. Bluetooth sounds great either way. YOU DO NEED TO INSTALL MUSIC FX app from the app store. The only EQ on this phone resides in their music app which is DTS so they say. It is worthless and it does not work with any other program and sounds bad even with their program. None of the other EQs seem to be completely compatible. My favorite EQ by Smart Android is buggy, maybe it will work after an update. Music sounds natural and warm with no over-processing as long as you find a pair of earphones that work or you use bluetooth and you install MUSIC FX.

I was hesitant to buy this over the MOTO G, but right now i feel i made the right choice for me (based on specs and price) and I love the pink color. The Moto G while has a better rep just left me feeling kinda blah. This phone is fun to use so far.

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